15 GNOSI: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Human Theory and Praxis Volume 4, Issue 3, July - December, 2021 ISSN (Online): 2714-2485 The Perception of Identity in Territorial Governance: The Italian Case Study of Alto Mantovano Area Carlo Arrighi Department of Historical and Geographic Sciences and the Ancient World, University of Padua, Via del Vescovado 30, 35141, Padova (PD), Italy. Email: [email protected] (Received: June-2021; Accepted: August -2021; Available Online: August -2021) This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY- NC-4.0 ©2021 by author (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) ABSTRACT The article collects and illustrates the results of the analysis on the perception of the Alto Mantovano identity, attempting to reconstruct it through the oral testimonies of territory privileged users, the Mayors. The text is structured in three directions. Firstly, an attempt will be made to identify the Alto Mantovano area, highlighting the difference between definitions “from above” and definitions “from below”. Secondly, the focus will examine the historical development of this area, as it is perceived, pointing out how this territory has stratified a specific identity which is proposed as an alternative to that of the main town, Mantua. Finally, it will focus on both similar and divergent points between the realities involved, giving three examples to prove that heterogeneity is possible even if there is the same identity recognition. Keywords: Public History; Perceptions; Identity; Italy; Alto Mantovano. INTRODUCTION The area covered by this article is geographically located in northern Italy and, more precisely, in the south-eastern Lombardy region, just below the southern part of the Garda Lake (Wikipedia.it). The Alto Mantovano area is affected – in its dialectal inflection, its traditions, its historical events, even in its political choices – by its proximity to the province of Brescia and, in part, to that of Verona. The area has a typically agricultural economy, although the years after World War II saw an increase in industrial production and a dynamic tertiary activity. The most significant municipalities are Castiglione delle Stiviere, Castel Goffredo, and Asola, where the hosiery industry is particularly developed. However, it is in the tertiary activities that the deepest differences can be seen between the municipalities of the area, each with its own perspective on the attractive opportunities of the territory (Barozzi, Beduschi & Bertolotti, 1982). But, before analysing these differences, it is useful to try to provide a 16 better definition of the Alto Mantovano area. In order to do that, it is first of all necessary to separate two different levels of investigation. On the one hand, we have a definition provided “from above”, as may be the case with the site of the Province of Mantua (Provincia di Mantova) or the Atlante Demologico Lombardo (Varina). The first provides an overview of the territory by presenting it geographically divided based on the juridical borders of the individual municipalities (Mantua, Alto Mantovano, Medio Mantovano, Oglio Po, and Oltrepò). The second provides a map that divides the province of Mantua into seven (7) rural areas, obtained from a geo- morphological reading of the area: the Mantuan morainic amphitheater of Garda Lake; the Mantuan highlands; the lowlands of Mantua; the middle Mantuan plain; the Mantuan rice-growing plain; the Oltrepò of Mantua, divided into the area to the left and the area to the right of the river Secchia. Alongside definitions “from above” are definitions “from below”. This contribution prefers precisely those “from below”, in an attempt to provide a more representative definition. Therefore, I interviewed the mayors of the municipalities participating in the Terre dell’Alto Mantovano project: Franco Perini (mayor of Casalmoro); Alfredo Posenato (mayor of Castel Goffredo); Alessandro Novellini (mayor of Castiglione delle Stiviere); Giorgio Cauzzi (mayor of Cavriana); Laura Marsiletti (mayoress of Ceresara); Sergio Desiderati (mayor of Guidizzolo); Giorgio Rebuschi (mayor of Ponti sul Mincio); Gabriella Felchilcher (mayoress of Solferino); Luciano Bertaiola (mayor of Volta Mantovana). The mayors, privileged witnesses of the area, were asked for a definition of the Alto Mantovano (Simeon, 1976). From their answers, it is possible to summarise that, in the thought of those who live in these places every day, ‘by Alto Mantovano we mean that north-western area of the province of Mantua, stretching out naturally towards lower Garda and closed off to the east by the river Mincio and to the west by the river Chiese’. This synthesis, of course, includes connotations that are more or less inclusive, but most of the evidence points to the prevailing proximity of interests with the territory of lower Brescia and lower Garda compared to the provincial capital. The image produced “from below” therefore contrasts with the interpretation proposed by national institutional channels. Local realities reveal a territory that sees itself as the product of a history that is in many ways common and of shared interests, both present, and future. The geographical definition thus gives way to a socio-economic interpretation, as emphasised by the mayors of Volta Mantovana, Bertaiola, and Casalmoro, Perini, albeit on opposite sides. Respectively, they say: ‘Alto Mantovano has always been understood as that part of the territory of the province of Mantua that looks towards the Brescia and Verona areas and, therefore, it should be understood as that area that goes from Asolano to Castiglionese and ends in the hills overlooking the lake’ (L. Bertaiola, personal interview, March 14, 2016) and ‘in my opinion, Alto Mantovano is that area that naturally extends towards the province of Brescia and the lower Garda area’ (F. Perini, personal interview, March 15, 2016). To confirm this perspective, the mayor of Solferino Felchilcher, interviewed on the possibility of territorial unions, maintains that ‘it is not correct, if it happens, to choose to include this territory in the province of Cremona, in what could be a hypothetical Lombard canton, because I believe that Alto Mantovano should rather be linked to the lower Brescia and lower Garda areas. It is important in these choices to create a macro-region with similar interests, such as those we have with the Brescia area’ (G. Felchilcher, personal interview, March 12, 2016). 17 The different positions are also confirmed by the relationship between the Alto Mantovano network and that of the provincial capital, Mantua. While for some municipalities there is a synergy between the two networks, understanding the Alto Mantovano as a periphery of the Mantuan one in the strict sense of the term, for others, there is an obligation, forced by the abolition of the provinces delegated by the region to promote the reference territory, to create ad hoc promotional channels. In other words, on the one hand, there are the smaller municipalities, which feel the need to make use of larger territorial structures with greater funds, and on the other hand, there are the bigger municipalities that can (and want to) look to an autonomist distancing from the traditional network. Thus, in the multifaceted process of identity creation of the Alto Mantovano, and in particular of its identity in relation to the historical-artistic heritage, the words of the mayor of Casalmoro fit in as well: ‘we are not Venice, Rome or Florence. We have to promote a smaller territory, so we need to make it understood. Moreover, ours is travelling tourism. We, therefore, need to think of movement routes, to be able to attract people to certain heritages but, at the same time, to encourage them to go deeper to see others: we need synergy in this. Mantua itself is too small to stand alone in an Italy with an immense heritage’ (F. Perini, personal interview, March 15, 2016), as well as those of the mayor of Castiglione delle Stiviere: ‘If in the past the control room could have been the province of Mantua, which had the institutional task, transferred to it by the region, of promoting the territory and its projects, now that the province has dismissed this function there is a risk of a deficit in what should be one of the potentialities of our territory: tourist attraction’ (A. Novellini, personal interview, March 17, 2016). As with any identity process, however, it is the intermediate positions that prevail, trying to make tradition and innovation coexist. There is no doubt that Mantua’s lack of attention to its surrounding area in the past can be seen in the backwardness of some of its infrastructures, but at the same time, the support provided by the provincial capital in recent times is praised. ‘Historically, there has been a lack of attention from the province, especially from the provincial capital. Indeed, feeling that it was the territory’s caput mundi, it probably ignored interactions with the municipalities, the distant provinces of the empire, which by natural vocation were more influenced by Brescia. Today, however, also for reasons of a different scenario, conditions changed and I believe also due to the merit of some political interlocutors, it seems to me that dialogue is strong and there is greater willingness’ (A. Posenato, personal interview, March 12, 2016).Among the different reasons supporting what has just been said, the different historical domination also seems to play a major role. Marsiletti, in fact, agrees in recognizing a division in the present, believes that ‘it is not a matter of greater autonomy from the capital, but it is more a different way of thinking of the people rooted in this territory, compared to the purely Mantuan and therefore more marked by a Gonzaga history. In our territory we focus very close attention on the Brescia area: the road, which is right on the border with Goito, was the old border of the Austro- Hungarian Empire, and these territories were subjected to a different domination’ (L.